Bacon Bits: End of Summer and onto Fall

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I’ve decided it might fun to do occasional non-food posts around here. It is a blog after all! And I want to connect with all of you more. I mean, we can connect over comfort food and pasta and other yummy recipes, but it’s good to slow down sometimes and just talk.

Hello, all! I have a few things to chat about today. Most of which does not involve my pets, though they are ridiculous and silly on a regular basis.

Going into September we’re getting back into the swing of school again. My daughter is in eighth grade these days (EEEK!) and, as two night owls, we are both trying to be more with it in the morning. I’m working on making interesting lunches and she is working on getting up with her alarm and not 5 minutes before the bus.

So far, so good!

Last year was not so good. Lots of barely getting up and out on time and lots of buying lunch. We will see.

Three Year Blog Anniversary

Yes, it has been three years since I started this blogging experiment! Wow. 😮

I’ve learned so much about how to write clear recipes, take mouthwatering photos, and write informative posts so you have everything you need to know on how to make the food. I know I have plenty more to learn, since there are always new foods, new photography techniques, and new food appliances to try. (Yes, I’m working on figuring out the Instant Pot, and have made some tasty recipes in it, though I confess I don’t get the fuss about it yet.)

And, while I have a few recipes from those first couple of months which have remained favorites – I’m looking at you chocolate chip butterscotch bars, I have started on a project to refresh some of my best recipes from the early days. Recipes which fell by the wayside since I didn’t have anyone here then reading. Recipes which deserved better!

Recipes like buttermilk blue cheese dressing, green bean salad, and tomato burrata caprese salad. Guess which photo is from the early days and which one I took a couple of weeks ago! Pretty easy I think…

Photography Backdrops

Part of learning food photography is all about light – using it, making sure you have enough but not too much, learning angles, and more. Another part is learning your camera – how to focus, angles, using a tripod as needed (which as far as I’m concerned is All The Time).

But one of the most fun parts is collecting. Collecting glassware and plates. Collecting cloth napkins and kitchen towels. Collecting flatware and all manner of wooden bowls and boards.

At the beginning of the year I went on a little collecting spree, since I was bored with my props, and you can see a wider ranges plates, cloths, and bowls in my photos since then. But I still had the same few backdrops. Boring!

So, while my daughter was doing her summer internship here and working off a phone repair debt, I thought she could make me some backdrops. I found a great DIY photography backdrop tutorial, had her read up on it, we went together to pick out sample sized paints, and here we have it! Two new beautiful backdrops.

As soon as I get some more wooden boards, I’ll have her make a couple more! And then we’ll try out some of the other diy backdrop tutorials out there and I’ll have a pile of fun backdrops. Which I keep on wanting to type as backdrip…

Cold Brew Coffee

Yes, I took my cold brew coffee one morning and did a photo shoot with it. Yes, I’m a food blogger. 🙂

I know I’m late to the cold brew coffee phenomenon, but those of us who are sensitive to caffeine (yes, me!) don’t get a chance to try a lot of the fun coffee drinks unless we do some work arounds. This work around involved me finding some coarse ground coffee and making the cold brew myself.

The recipe which I found at The Kitchn couldn’t be simpler, just one ounce coffee grounds to one cup water. So far, so good. But then, how about decaf coarse ground coffee? None to be found in the store!

I ended up ordering some from Stone Street Coffee in NYC. Lots of flavors, great quality, and fast shipping. All good! And now I can say that I’m not quite so out of the loop.

*One caveat: The long extraction time does pull out more of the residual caffeine from the grounds than conventional methods. I’m good so long as I only have few ounces of the cold brew in a day and fill the rest of the glass with water and milk. Luckily, I like coffee flavored milk, ie extreme lattes, so a small amount is all I need.

Ginny With Her New Toy

While this chat was mostly not about the pets, they always find a way to sneak in! And Ginny really wants to show you her new toy. Who am I to say no?

Ginny doesn’t have many toys, mainly because she chews right through them, then there is stuffing everywhere and we need to grab the squeakers before she eats them. Fun times. So, when I saw a no-stuffing, the whole thing is squeakers (no spot to chew specifically), level-10 dog toy in the local pet store I had to get it.

You never saw a dog so happy! (The specific toy is from Mighty Toys, part of VIP products.) And, while I’m sure there are dogs who would have chewed through it by now, my tough chewer hasn’t managed as yet. Other than bones, this the longest any toy as lasted here.

Look at that tail go! It’s just a blur. 🙂